


Fireteam Nasca

by Suribot



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8205116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suribot/pseuds/Suribot
Summary: Three Guardians swap stories in Campus 9 as they wait for a Fireteam to return from the Vault of Glass.





	1. Ishtar Sink

Sitting atop an old Collective building in Campus 9, nestled firmly in the Ishtar Sink on Venus, Fireteam Nasca set out to discuss their options. Their charge was simple. Intending to strike at the heart of the Vex Conflux, a double Fireteam had ventured inside the Vault of Glass. They had not been the first. Hopefully, they would be the last. 

Fireteam Nasca was not a part of that operation.

“I should have brought a book. Or some puzzle rings. Anything to keep my hands busy.” The Warlock Mathias broke the silence, as he always did. Though highly regarded by the Cryptarchy for a human and every bit the capable warrior, he worried far too often. He hated to be idle and a mission to wait was the worst kind for him. It made him nervous.

“Is that what Warlocks consider fun? Puzzle rings? Your enclaves must be dull as dirt.” The Hunter Nadaia Wen had her eyes set to the ShortGaze of her LDR 5001, slowly moving from left to right, acting as spotter and sniper. A talented Awoken scout who once served the Queen, or so they say. She’d never given Mathias a straight answer on that. She rarely gave straight answers on anything. “I get that you’ve got ants in your pants, but we’re not going anywhere any time soon. Take a lesson from our Titan friend and keep quiet.”

The Exo Titan Mako-7 remained silent. She stood off to the side, a tall sentinel standing watch over her friends. A hero of the Crucible, Mako was most at home facing down her fellow guardians. She considered herself an athlete of sorts. A competitor. She had emerged victorious in the Trials of Osiris. She had seen the Lighthouse on Mercury. Lord Shaxx had once personally invited her to join the Redjacks. She declined, for reasons unspecified. Those who bet their glimmer on Crucible matches liked to call her the second-coming of Thalor, though she disliked the comparison. She was not undefeated. Neither was Thalor, in the end. 

Standing on Venus in her Exile armor, feeling the slightly acidic bite of its air through her suit’s filters, she knew her duty. They were to stand watch and wait for any sign of the Guardians who went down into the Vault. After a set interval, if no soul emerged victorious, another team of guardians would relieve Fireteam Nasca. And then another. And when the Vanguard was ready to accept the team as lost, another double Fireteam would make the plunge. If they failed, another would go. And another. And another. And the cycle would repeat until the Vault’s core belonged to the Vanguard and the Tower. Until the Traveler’s Light found purchase in the deepest corner of the Vex stronghold. This was a dark task, but one that must be done. The weave of time could not be left in the hands of the Vex. Mako knew this all too well.

The Exo cleared her throat. A nominal gesture among Exo, despite the lack of practical function. “I don’t think we should stay quiet. If either of you are nervous, we should speak. Break the tension.” 

Both Mathias and Nadaia turned to face her back, their expressionless helmets managing to impart their shock. Nadaia sighed and slung the LDR over her back, drawing a sidearm instead. “If Miss Flawless over here says we should chat, who am I to complain? Pull up a chair, Matty, let’s swap stories.” The Hunter hopped off the roof of the building. Her ghost materialized for a brief moment, glanced around, and then hid itself once more as the Awoken walked into the Ishtar Collective facility. Mako followed, as did Mathias.

The buildings littering the area were all Ishtar Collective, old yet durable science facilities. Nadaia had decided they’d camp inside the one with the little satellite dish. Said it had charm. A lot of things Nadaia liked had “charm”. The cloak of the dead Kell she wore around her neck had charm. The strange Hive gun she found that whispered to them in the dead of night had charm. Her puppet shows involving dead Vex frames had charm. Mako agreed with that last one. The Titan did her best to have a sense of humor when it came to the Vex. She often failed, but she did her best.

Nadaia had her back to the wall, LDR set aside with her Ironwreath sidearm in hand. Mathias had never actually seen her use it, but she always kept it on her. Nadaia disassembling and cleaning that gun was a common sight at Fireteam Nasca campsites. The Warlock leaned against one of the walls, his finger tapping the dead buttons of an old console. Again, he broke the silence. “I think we should go in after them.”

“Absolutely not.” Mako shut him down immediately. “That is not our mission. I get the concern, I do, but we stay here.

“Six Guardians is not enough.” Mathias protested.

“I mean, yeah. He’s not wrong.” Nadaia had begun to disassemble her Ironwreath. “I don’t really know much about the Vex, but six seems like underkill. I mean, I’m sure we could get together a dozen Guardians eager to strike the heart of the Vex, right?”

Mako paced slightly, collecting her thoughts. Though it gave her the impression of being stoic, the truth is just that she wasn’t a very skilled orator. She required time to sharpen her words and it usually ended up with her not saying anything at all. That wasn’t an option here. “I... The Vex are not like the Fallen. They are not like the Hive. They are not like the Cabal. I wish they were. I do. Honestly, I agree. Six is not enough. Twelve is not enough. The combined light of a hundred Guardians and I still would not feel comfortable facing down the Conflux. They are not... They are not a foe to defeat. They are a disease to cure. Systemic, endemic only to time, they...” Mako felt her words escape her. She had something for a moment and lost it. “The Vex are why I prefer the Crucible.”

Mathias tilted his head. “They scare you,”

“They should scare you too.” Mako looked away. “You just don’t know them like I do and I don’t know them nearly well enough as it is.”

“Woah, hey, Flawless.” Nadaia interjected as she clicked the last piece of her Ironwreath back into place. “This is getting a little serious. I get that you need to blow steam, but are you okay? You’re worrying me.”

Mako huffed. “Yes. No. I don’t know. I’m worried.”

Mathias pulled up a chair and brushed some of the moss off of it. “Talk to us. We’re friends.”

“Hey now, Matty, don’t be saying things you can’t take back.” Nadaia chuckled and elbowed him. “He’s right though, Flawless. Mako. Come on. Talk to us. We’ve fought together. We’ve died together. Like, a lot. Maybe less dying in the future. Still hate it. That aside, share with us. Tell us about the big bad goblins in your dreams.”

Mako paced for a few moments and faced her fellow guardians. She smiled beneath her helmet. “Okay. May I make an offer?”

Mathias opened his mouth to accept and Nadaia put her hand on his helmet, shaking his head a little to stop him. “You can offer it.”

“Tell me about the Queen and I’ll tell you about the Vex.” There was a slight hint of mirth to the Exo’s voice.

Nadaia groaned. “If I wasn’t already blue, I’d be turning it right now.”

Mathias looked toward her. “Is that a turn of phrase or something?”

“It... look, nevermind. Alright. I’ll talk about the Queen.” She jabbed a finger against Mathias’s chest. “You gotta give us some dirt too. You’ve got two girls spilling their guts out in front of you, don’t take that for granted.”

Mathias chuckled. “I have some stories.”

Nadaia rolled her eyes beneath her helmet. “I’m sure.”

Mako looked between the two. “Okay. I guess I’ll start.”


	2. Because Of The Vex

Mako began by drawing a handcannon from the back of her belt, where it was snugly nestled into her Mark of the Exile. Both Mathias and Nadaia had seen it many times before. It was Mako’s firearm of choice, one she’d had since they all first met in a game of Salvage. 

Placing it on the table, it didn’t look particularly exceptional. It was unlike any they had seen before, certainly, but it was no Thorn. Nothing about it screamed “unique,” although the red lights adorning the chamber were a pleasant aesthetic touch, backed by a faint white light. Above the barrel and offset to the right were a pair of glowing red circles that superficially resembled the Vex monoeyes. Mako tilted her head toward her fellow guardians. “Have either of you seen another gun like this?”

Mathias felt that this should be an easy question. He had not taken special notice of the gun, beyond the place it had at Mako’s side. The core of its design was similar to many basic handcannons that other Guardians used. A Lord High Fixer was easy to come by from competing in the Crucible and the skeleton of the weapon looked close enough. Still, he knew “kind of” was not the answer to this question that Mako was looking for and also not one that rang true. Nadaia did not know this and so said just that.

“Kind of, but not really?” The Hunter chimed in. She shrugged. “It seems familiar, but have I ever seen a duplicate? No. I thought you customized it, to be honest.”

Mathias followed with his own response. “No. If you told me it was a common gun around the Tower, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I’ve never seen one quite like it. It’s just odd enough to be memorable, but not so odd as to draw attention.”

Mako nodded to the both of them. “Less than a month after my Ghost first rekindled my light, I found myself on Venus, not far from here. I was in over my head. An experienced Guardian has nothing to fear from a couple Hobgoblins, but I was pinned down. My Ghost warned me that if I died, it might be too much to bring me back. ‘With an overwhelming force of darkness against the faint embers of your nascent light, I can only do so much.’ That’s what she said to me and it put fear in my heart.” Mako paused for a bit. “Then came two Hunters. Nightstalkers both, their arrows flew and tethered every goblin to the ground. Grenades flew. Smoke, void light, I couldn’t tell if there was anything left in the clouds. They told me they were sisters. Twin Ghosts and Twin Guardians. Catherine and Kelly. Never heard of such a thing.”

Mathias nodded. He had never heard of such a thing either. Mako continued.

“Didn’t see their faces, but their armor matched. Dead Orbit markings. They saved me and... well, they brought me along. Told me the Vex were doing something big. They usually worked alone, their light feeding one another, but they thought they could use some extra muscle. Fist of Havoc always comes in handy, especially next to Nightstalkers. I heard Ikora Rey talking to them through their ghosts. It was a long haul and I was out of my league. The Vex poured out of gates. Just...” Mako paused and looked away. “A tide of bronze? Flowing metal?”

Nadaia chuckled. “Poetic practice? You’ll be a bard yet. Trying to model yourself after Lady Skorri or something?”

“I... No, just.. look, I’m not good at this. I always feel like every one has a better grasp of the language than I do.” Mako ran her hand over the back of her helmet.

Nadaia extend an arm and set it up the Exo’s shoulder. “You’re doing fine. That’s all in your head. We’re riveted, right Mathias?”

“Absolutely,” he said without a trace of irony. Nadaia had meant it genuinely as well, but sometimes it was hard to discern her true intent. “Please, continue.”

Mako nodded. “Okay. It felt like days. We pressed on. There should have been more of us. Still, we pushed through. Ikora spoke to them regularly, monitoring. She called the thing we hunted a Restorative Mind. Something that... rewove time to correct past mistakes. Where one mind dies, it returns to stop that death or undo that death. Change what progress Guardians had made. I’d never heard of such a thing. I was new. I barely knew anything about the Vex. They were robots, I shot them. All this business about the Conflux of Time was above my pay grade. She said things. That we had caught this attempt to alter the timestream, but how many did we miss? The words that ring in my head. ‘Does the world stand as it does because of the Vex?’”

Mako grew silent. Nadaia and Mathias joined her.

“In the end, we destroyed the mind and there was a chest. In it, I found this gun. It’s got Light like nothing I’ve seen. Catherine said she’d seen a few before, found in odd Vex caches here and there. They were my first Fireteam. They saved me a dozen times and I saved their lives just as many. It was the first time I felt... camaraderie. Bonding between Guardians.”

There was silence again. Mathias broke it. “It’s a lovely story, but it doesn’t seem to account for your fear of the Vex. You were victorious. Your Light shone through.”

Mako picked up the gun and holstered it. “That’s not the part that scares me. What scares me is what happened when I got back to the Tower. I made a beeline for the Vanguard. I wanted to speak with Ikora and thank her. I briefly caught her, gave her my thanks and she said she had never coordinated a mission with me. That I must be mistaken. I felt dizzy. My next stop was Dead Orbit. Catherine and Kelly. I wanted to connect with them. Team up again. They had no records of them. No Hunters by the names of Catherine and Kelly. I spent days searching, asking. Questioning. No one had heard of them. No one had seen them. There was no record of twin Guardians. There was no record of our mission, of the Restorative Mind. Nothing. The only bit of proof was this gun. My Ghost believes me, of course. My Ghost was there. We don’t have recordings. We should, but we don’t. As far as everyone is concerned, the mission never happened.”

Silence, again.

Mathias spoke. “I don’t understand.”

“The Vex control time. They sought to rewrite history. I thought we stopped them, but maybe we didn’t... or perhaps we did, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe I just... wandered into something the Vex constructed. Out of time, out of space. I don’t know. Maybe the Vex relocated them to my time, with their Ikora still on the line. I never walked through a Gate. I never felt myself grow ill or have something slip away from me. Whether we failed and the Mind rewrote what had happened or that victory is yet to come, I did not even notice that time had changed. I didn’t feel a thing. It’s been years since then. So long. Still no Restorative Mind. No Catherine, No Kelly. No other guns like this one.”

Nadaia stood. “Okay. That. I...” The Hunter pat Mako on the shoulder. “I feel you. I get you. I understand. I mean, I do not understand even a little bit, but I empathize.”

Mathias stood as well, pacing. “I have a litany of questions. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Just...” Mako raised a hand. “Just don’t. I’ve thought about it. A lot. I’ve... tried to tell this before, but I’ve never gotten the whole thing out. So just... let it sit for a while. You can ask all you want later. I have no answers now and I’ll have no answers later.”

Nadaia tapped her foot. She paced as well. She raised her hands, lowered them, scratched the chin on her helmet and finally turned to point at Mako. “... you’ve given me a real tough act to follow, you know that?”

Mako let herself smile. “I know. It’s your turn.”


	3. Mara Sov and House Winter

Nadaia Wen had died once. Since then, she had died many times more. She had died by the sword of a Devil Baron in the European Dead Zone. She had died when her throat was crushed by a Hive Knight outside the Hellmouth. She had died after being struck by a Cabal Interceptor during a rather trying mission on Mars. That one was particularly embarrassing. Her Ghost had recorded the noise she made when she died. Most would consider that morbid, and it was, but it was also a very funny noise. Supremely undignified. She was fine with that. There wasn’t any dignity to be had in death, temporary or otherwise. 

She had disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the Ironwreath twice now. She hated to admit any similarity to Mathias, but keeping her hands busy did keep her level. The Ironwreath itself kept her calm as well. Light. Well-balanced. Packed a nasty little Solar kick. It belonged to Sarah. It was the last thing she had of her. She wouldn’t talk about Sarah. Mako bartered for the story with the Queen, so that’s what she would get. The Hunter began.

“I used to be a Crow.” She ejected the magazine from the sidearm and pulled back the slide, inspecting her overly thorough maintenance. “You guys know what a Crow is?”

Mako shook her head. She wasn’t the intelligence-gathering type. 

Mathias, however, nodded. “Spies that serve under Prince Uldren, yes? Part of the Reef information network?”

Nadaia inspected Sarah’s Ironwreath once more. She gently tucked the unloaded gun into her pack, wrapping it in soft cloth first. If she left it out, she’d clean it a dozen more times before her story was done. “Basically right. Uldren is the Master of Crows. We reported to him. I served the Queen though. It’s not a relevant distinction now, seeing as I’m persona non grata, but it matters because I don’t want to give Uldren more credit than he’s due. We gave Uldren our reports, but the Queen was in charge. He just kind of acted like he was the end-all, be-all authority. Never liked him.” 

Mathias nodded. “I’ve heard stories.”

“They’re all true.” She said without hesitation.

Mathias paused. “Even-”

“Yes.” She replied again.

“With a Fallen?” He asked, aghast.

“Yes. He’s very sensitive to the plight of the Eliksni.” She smiled under her helmet, delighted to chip away at any positive reputation Uldren might have out here. He deserved worse, as far as she was concerned.

Mathias shifted uncomfortably. “Well! I could have gone without knowing that.”

“Deal.” She stood up, pacing a bit. “Can we get a fire going outside? All cuddle up around the campfire, roast marshmallows, sing the Iron Song, what have you? Doesn’t feel right telling stories in a vaguely damp observer station.” 

Mako shook her head. “Hobgoblins. Plus, House Winter. They like their Wire Rifles.” 

Nadaia gave an exaggerated sigh. She already knew the answer before she asked. “C’mon, what’s a few blows to the head between Guardians?” She grabbed a chair, swung it around and sat in it backwards, facing her compatriots. “I guess I’ll just start.” She had put it off long enough anyway.

“I served the Queen as a Crow during the Reef Wars. It was after ah, Twilight Gap. That’s what it’s called. I always forget.” Nadaia tapped her finger rhythmically against the back of the chair she leaned on. “Wasn’t there, just heard the name.” 

Mathias nodded. He was not at Twilight Gap. Neither was Mako. Her ghost hadn't found her yet. All things considered, even with their many combined years of experience, they were fairly new Guardians. Mathias was actually the oldest among them, though you wouldn't know it by combat skill. 

“I was on Venus, spying on Draksis. You know, big guy, Winter Kell, has a helmet kind of like those Space Bus jumpships?” Nadaia didn’t wait for the two of them to confirm or deny knowledge of Draksis before she continued. “It was a long-term assignment, surveillance, generally making sure the Houses didn’t try to collude again like at Twilight Gap. Organized Fallen are always a problem. I reported fairly regularly to Uldren, but uh... this one time, the Queen spoke to me personally. Told me how important my task was in the coming days. Something was up, so I became a bit more cautious. Tried to spy from safer locations... which turned out to be not-so-safe. I was discovered, run through by a pair of Vandals and Draksis himself tossed me off Simiks-fel from low orbit. I don’t remember hitting the ground, but, well, I definitely did.”

Mathias and Mako were silent. Nadaia didn’t like that.

“Ah, it probably didn’t hurt that much. Must’ve had a heart attack on the way down or something. I don’t really remember.” She in fact remembered it intensely well. She survived for a few moments after she hit the ground. It was not pleasant. She would not mention it. “Not too long after that, my Ghost found me. Probably the fastest death-to-guardian promotion on record.”

“Wait.” Mathias raised his hand, not quite as high as he would if he were still a student, and began to speak. “What does the Queen have against you then?”

“Well...” Nadaia trailed off. “See, you know how it is when your Ghost wakes you up that first time. You’re a mess. Memory is all jumbled. Don’t know which way is up. Yellow and Green look the same.” She paused. “No? Just me for that one? Okay. Anyway, it took me a good few months to get my head on straight and while I was dead, House Winter made a big push on the Prison of Elders and broke out an Archon Priest. Were I still at my post, the Queen would’ve been alerted to something like that. So, when a Crow reported seeing me alive and well... it’s not like my Ghost was floating next to me at the time or anything.”

“So she didn’t know you were a Guardian.” Mako nodded, understanding.

“I’m not sure that would’ve mattered. If I died, that’s one thing, but if I came back to life...” Nadaia shook her head. “Then why didn’t I report sooner? I mean, who is actually going to believe ‘amnesia’ as an excuse for that?” 

“Hm.” Mako scratched the chin of her helmet. “I understand. I don’t think it’s reasonable, but I understand. Really, the way you told it, I thought the Queen was a scorned lover or something.”

Mathias just stared at Mako while Nadaia laughed.

“You found me out. We were madly in love and the Queen sent me away, lest she tarnish her station by marrying a commoner like me.” She giggled a bit longer.

Mathias shook his head. “You really can’t... talk that out with her? If you were so valued...”

“It’s because I was so valued, Mathias. She put her faith in me and, reasonable or not, she sees me as someone who failed her. You don’t ‘talk it out’ with Mara Sov.” Nadaia laid on her back. “Really, I like Mako’s version better.” She aimed a finger gun toward the ceiling and made a little ‘pow’ sound, pressing her thumb down as if firing a shot into the Queen’s heart. “Much more romantic.”

“Yes, well... as we know...” Mathias began. “Your ideas of charm and romance are bizarre at best.”

“Which is why I find all of your stories dreadfully boring, Matty.” Nadaia sat up. “I’ll give this one a shot though.

The Warlock smirked beneath his helmet. “You won’t be disappointed.”


	4. Vertigo

Mathias decided to make himself comfortable on the ground, taking his trusty Hopscotch Pilgrim and setting it beside him. He wasn’t obsessive about cleaning his guns like Nadaia, but he kept it in good shape. Some of the blue finish had scorch marks from a Torch Hammer, the grip was worn down from use, just about ready to be replaced, and there was a notch in the frame where it stopped a Hunter’s knife in a Rumble match. The Crucible was not his forte, but he enjoyed the friendly competition. 

Truth be told, he hadn’t actually thought of what story to tell yet. Seemed like he should avoid the Vex, as nothing he could tell would match Mako’s bit of temporal horror. He hadn’t ever faced down a Kell before, whereas Nadaia had killed at least one. Perhaps belated revenge against Draksis, dead before she had a chance to get back at him. Though now that Mathias thought of it, which Kell did she kill? She said her cloak once belonged to a Kell, but which? She hadn’t actually mentioned. And really, wasn’t it just his assumption that she killed one? He’d have to ask more about that later. Still, none of his exploits against the Fallen quite matched “being dropped out of a ketch by a Kell.” Add that to the fact that he’d never actually been to the Moon, except for Crucible matches, meaning he had never encountered the Hive. So, for variety’s sake, the choice was made for him.

“The Cabal-” Mathias began.

“Yawn.” Nadaia interrupted.

“I haven’t even begun!” He protested. “You don’t even know what I’m going to say!”

Nadaia pulled out a small leather-bound book from her pack, as well as a ball-point Future War Cult-branded pen she’d permanently borrowed at some point. She began writing out something in the book, humming. Mako peeked over her shoulder and chuckled.

“What?” Mathias asked, leaning forward in a vain attempt to see.

“I’m writing down what I think you’re going to say.” Nadaia’s smirk was audible.

“Loosely what you’re going to say.” Mako clarified.

Mathias huffed. “Fine. As you know, I’ve done work with the Cryptarchy on decoding Cabal communications.”

Nadaia made a check mark on her book.

"Cabal encryption is fairly simple compared to Vex code, but it's the difference between a smart rifle and an orbital laser. It's an unfair comparison. Still, while the great minds of the Cryptarchy toil away for months at cracking the temporal dialects that tie the Vex together, decrypting Cabal chatter goes neglected. It's poorly documented and honestly an area we're sorely lacking in. So, understanding the Cabal language and the encryption overlaid on top of it is a niche that needs filling. So, the Cryptarchy holds me in regard for doing that sort of work for them. When I was a student, I used to tutor my instructors on the language. It's interesting. More complex than you would think, but lacking in subtlety."

Nadaia chuckled as she made two checkmarks. "Like the Cabal themselves."

Mathias laughed. "You stole my joke."

Mako shook her head. "Needs work anyway. Jokes are not your strong suit."

"I'll take that under consideration. We can't all have Wen's aptitude for prop comedy." Mathias chuckled as Nadaia gave an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders.

"Is it true that they have six words for advance and none for retreat?" Nadaia asked, expressing some genuine curiosity.

"Yes. If they have a concept of fleeing from battle, it's been purged from the common lexicon. Everything that comes close has the implications of regrouping or refocusing efforts rather than an outright retreat. Victory, Death, or Victory in Death. They have an equivalent term to Pyrrhic Victory, even. It comes out to something like 'winning today by losing tomorrow.' It's a play on an old Primus's name, from what I can tell..."

Mako raised her hand. Nadaia looked at her. She looked back and lowered her hand, a touch embarrassed. Mathias came off very scholarly, so it was easy to get wrapped up in the classroom feel he exuded. "So, what are the words for advance?"

"Oh, well there's actually a lot more than just six,” He began. “Those are just the core ones. It's a bit like... so there is the core term that just means 'advance.' Another one would be similar to our concept of blitzkrieg, but I like the literal meaning. It's a homonym for a word they have that means 'the gas expelled by a volcano at the moment of eruption.' It denotes a sudden, overwhelming and unstoppable force. Head on and visible, but too fast to be reacted to. Similarly, they have a word shared with the name of a predator indigenous to, I presume, their home planet. It's their equivalent of a stealth attack. The predator is a giant subterranean worm that hunts by sound and vibration. It emerges from the ground to swallow prey whole. 'Attack in such a way that they won't notice until it's too late.' Similar, but different... they all kind of come off like that."

Mako nodded. Nadaia feigned disinterest, but she actually kind of enjoyed this.

"Now, to specify on words that might connote a retreat..."

Nadaia checked off her list. "Okay, I've hit all my checkboxes. This is nice, but are you going to get to the story?"

"Right." Mathias nodded. "Yes. Okay. Well, my point is, I know the language very well and I also can work over their encryption with relative ease. So, when they began intercepting Cabal signals directed toward Mercury..."

Both his fellow Guardians sat up, shock visible despite the helmets.

"Mercury?" Mako asked, puzzled. "We don't even have a good foothold on Mercury. it's all Vex from surface to core. Even the Lighthouse is just inside some hollowed-out Vex architecture."

Nadaia shook her head. "From what I know, it's not ALL Vex, I don't think, but it's pretty close. It's the only inner planet we don't have a constant presence on.”

Mako affirmed this. “Even the Lighthouse was abandoned. Or at least, unoccupied. If it was actually abandoned, it would have had to have been very recent...”

Mathias chuckled and waved his hands. “You two seem frightened. Don't be. Mercury is largely a dead planet. True, the whole place is a honeycomb of Vex architecture and installations, but... well, it’s a bee hive without bees. It’s empty, for the most part. A couple isolated pockets of Vex, but it’s a world that sits still, collecting star stuff and baking in the Sun. Even so, there’s much to be learned about the Vex from the husk of a planet that it is. We know this, but it’s out of the way and of little tactical value. Which is why it was so odd that we detected Cabal in the vicinity." Mathias held a hand up and made his light dance in his palm. It formed small clusters, orbs in an orbit, and it was soon clear that he was depicting the solar system. Some faded away, others became larger, until it was only two. one large and another small. The Sun and Mercury. Not to scale. He then narrowed the image of his creation to just the single mote of light in his hands, crafting tiny blue dots above the surface in formation. Crude representations of the Cabal ships. He could have used his ghost to project something far more detailed, but he was clearly showing off. Just a bit.

Nadaia grumbled something improper about Warlocks under her breath.

"The transmissions were only inbound, not outbound. A command outpost on Mars trying to get a status report from the ships. No response. They were silent in orbit and after we ascertained that, I was on one of the teams sent to investigate. We touched down near a large, active Vex gate and it seems like the Cabal had started bringing down supplies, but there were no troops. We were met with no hostile response. Just a small fleet up in orbit." Mathias made a fist, dispersing the light in his palm. 

Nadaia leaned forward. "A fleet? Like, a small fleet, but a fleet? How many is a fleet."

"More than you would hope, but less than you would think.We had half a dozen fire teams ready to simultaneously board what we identified as command ships to try and disrupt communication and take the whole fleet out at once. It was something of a daring mission, six groups working in tandem to infiltrate Cabal ships in orbit... but we didn't really need to, it turns out."

Mako tilted her head. "Did they surrender? What happened to 'six for advance, none for retreat?'"

Mathis wagged a finger. "It's even stranger. When we boarded the ships, they were empty. Fully stocked, fully operational, no one aboard. No living, no dead."

"Had any of the escape pods been deployed?" Mako asked.

"Cabal don't have escape pods, so no." 

"You're kidding." Nadaia laughed. "That's ridiculous."

"I'm serious. No escape pods." He laughed. "They have these orbital drop pods that are used for individual troop deployment, and their Harvester drop ships, but no escape pods."

The front of Mako's helmet found itself in the palm of her hand. "Unreal."

"Retreat is not in their language, literally." Mathias shrugged.

"Wait, back up a bit." The Hunter waved her hand. "What happened to the Cabal?"

"Oh." Mathias shrugged. "No idea."

"...so you just... found a bunch of Cabal ships, totally empty, with no signs of a struggle and no bodies and... what?" Nadaia waved her arms incredulously for a moment, trying to vent some frustration. "You just left them there?"

"Yeah." Mathias nodded. "No sense bringing them down. The way the ships are sequenced together, without understanding how the control system interfaces, removing any one ship would bring the others down. My Ghost has a clone of one of the command ship networks and decrypting it is something I do in my spare time... my notes get soggy on Venus though, so i usually leave them on my ship when I'm here."

"It seems odd to do that. Can't something more immediately productive be done?" Mako asked, pragmatic titan as always.

"Last I heard, the Redjacks were securing the Vex structure below the ships for use as a Crucible arena. Shaxx seemed to think it was well suited. Something about verticality." The Warlock smiled.

"This was a terrible story, Matty." Nadaia cleared her throat and stood up. "Let me tell another. Wipe the taste of that one out of my mouth."

Mathias pouted. "I thought it was interesting."

Mako chuckled. "I did too, Mathias. Nadaia, if we're going on rotation, it's my turn."

The Hunter considered this and sat back down. "Okay."

Mako-7 tapped the side of her helmet for a few moments, thinking. "Let me tell you about the Hellmouth."


	5. Thrall

“No thanks.” Mathias waved his hand. “I don’t need to hear about the Hive.”

“Aw.” Nadaia giggled. “Afraid of the dark?”

“Look, I think we’ve established that we should all be afraid of everything, at all times. I don’t need more things to be afraid of. I’ll stick to an all-purpose fear, thank you.” Mathias shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “The Vex are cold and calculating, the Fallen are tenacious, the Cabal follow orders with a frightening dedication, but the Hive just creep me out, alright?”

A low murmuring came from Nadaia’s pouch and Mathias jumped. The Awoken Hunter giggled and took out the source of the noise, a Hive gun she had found a few months back. It was unique, to be certain. It gave off a low hum in the quiet moments. It spat acidic green rounds like a firehose. It whispered to them in the night. Nadaia loved the thing. “What? Scared of my little Gabber over here?”

“That thing talks! A gun should not talk! I don’t know why you haven’t destroyed it.” Mathias turned away. “I’d have smashed it.”

“I mean, yeah, it’s probably super evil. Can’t really argue with that.” Nadaia dusted it off a bit and it gave off a deep thrumming noise as something green illuminated below its surface. “But also it’s, like, a really good gun. I don’t usually go for the full-auto stuff but it’s just fun. Also, everyone is always really surprised by it. It’s neat.”

Mako nodded. “So long as you don’t take that thing into the Crucible, I don’t have a problem with it... but if we took it to a vote, I’d say smash it.”

Nadaia huffed. “You guys are no fun.” She wrapped it up in some cloth pilfered from an acolyte before tucking it away in her pack once more. The cloth silenced its voice. Mostly. “Anyway. Hellmouth. Deets? Never been myself, so...”

“If you’ve never been to the Hellmouth, how do you have a Hive gun?” Mathias chimed in, quizzical.

“There’s some Hive trying to build up a presence in the Cosmodrome. Grabbed it from a Knight.” She shrugged. “You should ask about what I do, Matty.”

He looked shocked. Appalled. “Hive are on Earth? I had no idea.”

“Come out of your ivory tower more often and you’d be kept abreast of such details, magic man.” Nadaia pressed her hand against her neck, making an audible pop as she rolled her shoulders and stretched.

“So.” Mako began again. “Hellmouth.”

“It needs a better name than that. It’s too intimidating. Our enemies don’t need help being scary.” Nadaia yawned.

“What would you suggest then, Ms. Wen?” Mako was more amused than annoyed at the constant interruptions, for now.

“Please. Ms. Wen was my mother. Call me Nadaia.” She chuckled. “As for a new name...” 

Nadaia Wen paused for a moment. “Party Cave.”

Mako laughed. Mathias stifled a chuckle.

“Wait, wait.” The Hunter clapped her hands together. “Okay, no, Party Cave was too strong. Should not have led with Party Cave. Sorry, keep going, Mako.”

“Thanks Nadaia.” The Exo smirked and shook her head. “The Moon as a whole is kind of a dead zone. I mean, Europe is one thing, but there’s actually nothing alive on the moon besides Fallen and Hive. I used to think the Sahara was lonely, but it’s got nothing on the Moon. I’d take a thousand miles of abandoned solar power facilities before I’d travel the barren sections of the moon. The area around the Hellmouth is pretty densely packed, though. The Accelerator, some old colony stuff... It almost makes you feel like you’re not alone.”

Mako sighed a bit. “But then you find the bodies. Taikonauts from the Golden Age. Families living in little colony enclosures. A Guardian here and there, untouched and ghostless. Then, it really hammers down how alone you are... the House of Exile aren’t a huge threat. They’re aimless and it takes all they have just to eke out a living in the face of the Hive. The Surface isn’t so bad, really. A couple Acolytes, a few Knights. They’re tough, for sure. I’d rather face down a Centurion or a Baron than I would a Knight. But it’s doable. It’s when you go down that it starts to really start to eat away at you.”

“I mean, I’ve fought Hive before, unlike some people.” The Hunter gestured to her Warlock friend. “I’ve heard people say that before, but I don’t really get what you mean.”

“It’s not the same on Earth like it is on the Moon. They’ve had centuries to make Luna their own, hollowing out the inside into their own colossal formicary. They-”

“Time out.” Nadaia made a little hand gesture to indicate it as such. “Formicary?”

Mako paused. “I. Um. Ant Hill. Colony. The whole thing. Like the tunnels and stuff.”

“You’re totally brushing up on vocabulary, huh?” Nadaia scribbled in her notepad. “I’d buy that for some glimmer.”

“Getting off topic.” Mako waved the teasing off. “I’m repeating myself a bit from the Vex, but you can’t think of the Hive as individuals. They’re not even just a swarm. They’re ... a structure. The tunnels they carved into the moon are as much a weapon as their swords. It ... they...” the Titan struggled for words once more. "A fight with the Hive is never a one-on-one engagement if you’re within their pits. Even if there’s just a single acolyte in front of you, the air and atmosphere exerts pressure and it’s like an assault from all sides. Just walking through takes strength. In the lower layers, even with there’s not a single Thrall around, your ghost still struggles to get you back up when you go down. It’s... smothering. Their den is a stronghold and a fortress more than anything the Cabal or Fallen could hope to construct. They weave the dark into their very beings, into the stone and cloth. They breathe it, they eat it, they excrete it. Their bodies and homes are poison to Light.”

Mathias nodded. This confirmed what he already knew. He didn’t like the Hive. He wanted nothing to do with the Hive. He had courage, but he needn’t be foolish about it. He had heard the stories of Crota. He knew Guardians that were on the Moon, at Mare Imbrium. He was content with his ignorance, for now... though he knew curiosity would get the better of him, at some point. He had to know, after all. That was a facet of himself he could not deny.

Nadaia nods. “I get it. Everything is terrible and we should be afraid constantly.” 

Mako chuckles. “I’m not that fatalistic, Naddie.”

Nadaia shot up and let out a joyful squeal. “You called me Naddie! Ahhh! I always wanted a nickname. Matty, start calling me Naddie!”

“No.” He replied, flatly. “Besides, it’s too similar to Matty, so unless you start calling me Mathias...”

“Gotcha.” The Hunter nodded. “Mako, Naddie and Matt.”

“That’s not-” Nadaia didn’t let Mathias finish.

“Which leaves Mako without a nickname... but it’s too short or anything really...” She ignored Mathias’s protests further, continuing her train of though. “... I could call you 7, but that’s like, longer.” 

The Titan chuckled. “Mako-7 is my name. Mako is the nickname.”

The Hunter pouted. “I guess... ... got anything funny to say about the Hive? I’m sick of the doom and gloom.”

“Hm.” The Exo pondered this. “Thrall can’t multitask.”

Mathias and Nadaia both tilted their heads. “Explain?” asked the Warlock.

“You’ve seen Thrall climb before, right? Creep up the edge of a pit?” Mako gestured at Nadaia. Mathias had already said he’d never seen the Hive, after all.

“Yeah. What about it?” She asked.

“Ever climb on something else while they’re trying to attack you?” The Titan had a sense of mirth in her voice.

“... ... yeah.” The Hunter had no idea where this was going.

“They don’t climb up after you, right? Like they can’t climb? But they climbed up over the edge to start with.” Mako raised a single finger. “No matter how long you wait, the thrall won’t climb. They’ll swing and claw, but they won’t climb so long as they see you. The only thing that’s changed is that now they’re attacking. So while they’re trying to attack, they can’t think about climbing, even if it’s the only way to get to you.”

“Oh my god.” Nadaia’s jaw dropped and made a soft thud against her helmet. “They can’t possibly be that thoughtless.” 

“They totally are. I’ve tried it out a few times. Once sat on a rock for an hour, just to see if the thrall could figure it out. Totally could not. If there’s a bunch, they’ll sort of dogpile and try to do that, but that’s more because they’re just clawing on top of each other.” Mako chuckled. “They’ve barely got a thought in their heads. It must take them years before they’ve got the brains to be a solo threat.”

“This is a revelation.” Nadaia laughed. “This could change the course of the war. Just build slightly bigger walls and the thrall threat is defeated.”

“I’ll let the Stoneborn Order know. Titans will take any excuse to build more walls, you know.” Mako glanced over at Mathias, hoping her bit of humor lightened his mood. Instead, his eyes were glued to Nadaia.

“If Mako is done, I’ve got a story I’d like to know about.” He glanced back to the Titan, either not finding her joke funny or not noticing it at all.

“I’m done.” Mako said, hiding her disappointment. 

“Good. So. Nadaia.” He turned to face her again.

“That’s me. Nadaia.” She replied.

“That cloak belongs to a dead Kell. Who did you kill for it? I know you didn’t kill Draksis, so...” He trailed off.

“Mm.” Nadaia nodded. “It doesn’t belong to Draksis, but I would have liked to take his. Shame... I guess there’s no harm in telling. So...”


	6. Hunter and Titan

Nadaia Wen was not exactly a favorite among Hunters. Already a loosely-affiliated order of loners and troublemakers, she stood out as one that was particularly difficult to get along with. First among her cooperation issues was her self-acclaimed 'legendary wit'. A common trait among Hunters is that they usually think they are much funnier than they are. Nadaia thinks she is hilarious and, while most would agree that her comedic timing is exceptional, many find it presents itself at inopportune times. For example, the appropriate action for a fireteam member to take when a fellow is engaged in a hand-to-hand duel with a Hive Knight is generally accepted to be “help” and not “yell ‘Is something bugging you?’ repeatedly until it is acknowledged.” 

Second, she found herself with no patience for the New Monarchy. Already unhappy with the state of the Consensus and with no desire to mire herself further, the Hunter found herself absolutely unable to tolerate the notion that fixing the problem was as easy as nominating a supreme leader to fix all the problems. As such, the few times she was forced to team up with members of the New Monarchy, she would egg them on repeatedly and, should they require assistance, demand she be nominated for King before offering aid. Though obviously a joke, New Monarchy loyalists usually found this to be in poor taste and she is generally considered a persona non grata by members of the faction. Executor Hideo also suspects her of stealing a customized Sparrow that was to be a prize in some sort of New Monarchy function, but has no proof of this. 

Third, any functions relating to the Reef or Agents of the Reef cannot involve her, as Mara Sov views her as a traitor. Thus, her missions must be considered carefully, lest they cause some unfortunate political circumstances with the Vanguard or the City in general. 

All of these combined factors make her a difficult Guardian to work with. This is why, though she would not admit it, she values Mako-7 and Mathias so much. Both are unaffiliated, have no ties to the Reef, and are willing to tolerate her humor. Fireteam Nasca is where she works best. So, Nadaia thought about her teammates. With that, she decided on honesty.

“One of my first assignments as a Guardian was, shall we say, self-imposed. My head was a mess for a while, but I never forgot about Draksis. I never forgot gasping for air as he held my throat and the sudden weightlessness when he dropped me.” She adjusted some straps on her left wrist and stopped herself from going for the Ironwreath again. She never forgot the drop, either. She left that part out earlier, so she’d leave it out now. “I took as many jobs on Venus as I could that put House Winter in my crosshairs. Woman on a mission sort of deal. Probably would make a good revenge movie, if it didn’t end with someone else killing Draksis.” She huffed a bit.

“Someone you know?” Mako asked.

“Not personally. They probably wouldn’t know me by name, but you met them. They were one of the people who went down into the vault. The one with the yellow pulse rifle.” She frowned.

“Ah.” Mathias nodded. “That one.” 

“Yeah, that one.” Nadaia huffed again. “Kill-stealing little…” 

“You’re mid-story, Naddie.” Mako reminded her.

“Right, right. So, this is like, two years after my Ghost pulled me out of the canyon in Winter’s Run. I’ve had time to polish myself, get my head on straight, be accused of treason by Mara Sov and whatnot. I’m more than a fledgling light, I’ve kinda spread my wings and I’m like, reliable and stuff. I mean, not like I am now, but I think I was pretty alright back then. Had a lot of training as a Crow to fall back on, just had to modify it to take into account the fact that I can take a bullet to the head and get back up.” Nadaia made a fingergun with her left hand, pointed it at her head, and mimed a being shot by it. She lolled her tongue out, as though dead, but it was only for her own amusement. The helmet covered her face. 

“We’re well aware of how cool and talented you are, Naddie.” Mako smirked. Mathias groaned.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.” Nadaia couldn’t help but smile whenever she heard ‘Naddie.’ Luckily, her helmet concealed this, lest she seem easily swayed. “So, I’m on Maat Mons. Southern Hemisphere, real muggy. The air doesn’t bite down there like it does up here, but it’s still not that pleasant. Air tastes like copper after it comes through the filters. So I’m cruising along on my sparrow and I see a little blue light off in the distance. A Ghost standing by for resurrection. I head in and there’s this Titan pinned down. She kept popping back up and every time the ghost managed to pull her up, she went right back down. A dozen vandals with a dozen wire rifles, all ready and waiting. She was in a huge clearing and the ghost seemed to be having trouble popping her back into safety, for whatever reason. So, I decided to help out. Set up behind a rock, pulled out my LDR and started popping them off. Got 4 of them before I needed to reload. They all scrambled, looking for me, and the Titan finally had an opening. She ran. She just bolted straight ahead, weaving. The Vandals had their attention split between me and her and they lost coordination. She started getting that blue rush of air around her, she jumped and rammed her whole body into one of the snipers. They just crumpled, flew off a ledge. I put it out of its misery before it hit the ground and from then on, she didn’t even need my help.” Nadaia laughed, leaning her back against the wall of the Ishtar facility. 

“She was unstoppable.” The Hunter punched the air with enthusiasm, adding emphasis to her story.  
“Arc light every which way, her fists flew, and she just tore through them. The crunch and the impacts echoed up to me and I just admired her through the scope. Some dregs and a captain funneled out from a little hidey hole and at that point, she leapt forward and just called down lightning. Titan smashes are just the best at room clears. No offense to Voidwalkers, Matty.” 

“None taken, Gunslinger.” He made fingerguns at Nadaia and she shot back, following with a little laugh.

“Anyway, she was a one-woman army. As soon as she had the opening, she cut a swathe through the rest of them. Fists, bullets, and the butt of her shotgun. I covered her, but she basically had it under control. The most I did was bring down the shields of a second captain that popped up and she made that one eat the barrel of a handcannon. I shot a couple more, yeah, but she was moving so fast, if I did too much, I was afraid I’d hit her. I jetted down, she waved, we chatted for a bit. Her name was Jordan and we hit it off right away. She was tracking down a Baroness with a bounty on her head and fell into some bad sorts. Her ship got shot out of the air by a spider tank and her brand new armor was apparently faulty. Ghost kept regenerating her, but it kept failing in the same spots, in the same ways, so she was pretty much made of glass as far as the snipers were concerned.” Nadaia reached for the Ironwreath, but again stopped herself. Instead, she pulled out her LDR-5001 and disassembled the scope for cleaning. 

Mathias smiled to himself. He’d noticed it before, but she had a far more compulsive need to keep her hands busy than he did. He’d turn it around on her if she made fun of him for it again.

“It was kind of a tight schedule. According to her intel, the Baroness was supposed to get picked up from her base and ferried back to Simiks-Fel. I immediately saw this as a chance for revenge (against the ship, at least) and pretty loudly said so to her. She seemed open to the idea, but pointed out that we were alone and her armor was sundered, so it was unlikely. I cooled down a little bit after that. Still, she appreciated the enthusiasm.”

Nadaia wiped down the optics of her scope and began reassembly, her ghost appearing to aid with the sealing process. Can’t have dust on the inside of a lens. “It was probably the first mission I had fun with. Like, actually enjoyed myself. I’d been in some dire straits, a lot of obligation and duty, fear. This was a party. We picked away at defenses, keeping score for every Fallen we downed from a distance. We raced our sparrows and high-fived in mid-air during a jump. As pressed for time as we were, it felt relaxing somehow. We holed up in an old bunker for the night, talked for what felt like hours. She took off her helmet for it, so I did too. Short brown hair, the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen and…” Nadaia cleared her throat.

Mako chuckled. “And?”

“That part of the story doesn’t get told.” She clicked the scope back together as her ghost sent out a little pulse of light, making the internal seal airtight. With that, it disappeared from sight. “We didn’t even need to set out in the morning. Turns out, the Baroness couldn’t get to where the dropship was picking her up. From the roof of the bunker, we could see shrapnel launchers and torch hammers going off. They’d run into some Vex.” The Hunter laughed. “It made it too easy for us, really. I picked them off from the roof and covered Jordan as she went in to do what Titans do.” 

She gestured at Mako, who nodded sagely, before continuing.

“Then it got hairy.” She affixed the Shortgaze scope back on to her LDR-5001, now having nothing to do with her hands once again. “A skiff came barreling in, dropped mines, and cleared some of the Vex. The Baroness was good to make her getaway. I hopped off the building, brought down my sparrow and moved in. Jordan started to rush, didn’t want her quarry running off. We’d been rocking it pretty hard, so I thought she might’ve forgotten about her armor. I got in there quick, but it wasn’t looking good. Her helmet was gone and she’d ripped one of the mechanical arms off the Baroness and was holding two more at bay, stopping the swords from plunging into her. It looked bad and I wasn’t confident I had time to line up a shot. So I hit the throttle on my sparrow, barreled through the dregs and rammed right into the Baroness’s legs. She dropped to the ground and Jordan made a nice bootprint on her neck. The rest of the stragglers turned tail after that. We didn’t even need to clean-up. We sat down and laughed about it. She was exhausted, barely could stand up at that point.” The Awoken hunter shook her head, letting out a wistful sigh. “She took me home with her after that, nice little place under the Traveler. When we weren’t in the field, I lived with her for a couple months. Good memories.”

“Didn’t work out?” Mako asked.

Nadaia shook her head. “Whirlwind romance. We were great partners in the field, but we’re more like ah... she’s that friend I see every now and then, we have a great time, we go our separate ways for another few years until we meet up again.” Nadaia nodded. Jordan was still a good friend. Maybe she’d check in on her after this. They hadn’t spoken since Sarah.

No one saw the frown beneath her helmet. The sigh that came after sounded wistful, not sad. 

“Wait.” Mathias piped up. “What about the cloak? You said it belonged to a Kell?”

Nadaia sat up and gently set her fist against her palm. “Ah. Right. It was a gift from Jordan. She liked collecting old relics and artifacts. She said it belonged to Solkis.”

Mathias bolted upright. “The Devil Kell? The one killed by Saint-14 at Twilight Gap? She just HAD that?! And she gave it to you?!”

Nadaia chuckled and draped it over the front of herself. It was blood red and terribly worn, with a small insignia near the neckline that Mathias had not noticed before. It bore the banner of House Devils, a sword between two spiked branches, vaguely hinting at a the shape of an Eliksni skull. “Well, I just have her word that it’s real.”

Mathias protested. “No! Come on, how could she even have that? And just-”

At that moment, all three Guardians paused and turned their heads. Their respective ghosts appeared simultaneously, as if on cue.

Mako-7 turned to her own ghost, one bearing a golden yellow shell with a black sunburst around its eye. The ghost spoke with an androgynous voice, like a child before puberty. “We’ve got company.”


	7. Tactics

Mathias was the most prudent of the three Guardians. Though they were all roughly equal in their mastery of the Light, the Warlock had spent the least amount of time in actual combat. Mako all but ruled the Crucible and Nadaia spent months at a time in the field, striving to cultivate the lone wolf aesthetic oh-so dear to Hunters. Mathias wasn’t like that. He was a scholar first and a warrior second. He could also be described as a tactician, though he would dispute that assessment. Regardless of his own feelings on the matter, both Mako and Nadaia trusted his judgment. In the heat of the moment, Mako was the one to trust. If you needed something dead from a mile away, it was up to Nadaia. If there was time to plan, then it fell upon Mathias to strategize.

There were two Captains, three Vandals, five Dregs and a handful of Shanks. House Winter, scavenging the campus.

“They’re being weird,” Nadaia had remarked earlier. “Two Captains for a single unit isn’t standard. They’re big on the hierarchy thing. Two Captains should mean twice as many Vandals, at least.” Mathias took note of this.

“Their movements are odd too,” Mako chimed in. “Not usual sweep and clear. They usually go through salvage with a fine-toothed comb. The quick checks here and there... I’d say that means they know what they’re looking for, but not where to look for it.”

Mathias nodded in response, but had remained silent. He considered the motives of the scavengers. If whatever they were looking for persisted through previous Fallen searches, it must be either locked down tight or fairly unassuming... or new. Whatever their motive, it could wait. He had put those thoughts aside and laid out his plan.

By now, Mako was already moving into a flanking position. Nadaia had climbed up the Vex structure the Fallen entered through. Mathias remained perched on top of the facility they made camp in. The three guardians formed a triangle with the cluster of Fallen at the center. 

The first volley was grenades. Mako lobbed a flashbang in the center of the group, loudly declaring the Guardian presence. As the disoriented Fallen attempted to fall back, a swarm of solar bursts homed in on them from the rear. Nadaia loved those little fire poppers. 

The shanks didn’t make it past the grenades. The scavengers tried to move to better cover, but suppressing fire from the Titan and Hunter kept them mostly pinned down. One of the Captains pulled his unit back, the other holding down behind some modest chunks of Vex structure. Then came the second volley.

Mathias leapt into the air and filled himself with a profound emptiness. He tore away at the fabric of reality and stitched it into something new. A lance of void shot through the air and ripped through the first squad, leaving a very pronounced nothingness where once stood Fallen. The second Captain’s retreat saved his squad from annihilation, but more than half of them had been wiped out. The Warlock floated down and pulled out his Hopscotch Pilgrim, firing two quick bursts and tearing through what was left of the Captain’s shield.

The remaining Dregs and Vandals shouted, trying to rally, but their voices cracked with pain. Burning green bullets washed over them, corroding their armor and flesh, eating away at their very being. Nadaia giggled to herself, the Hive gun thrumming softly in her grip. In less than 20 seconds of combat, all that remained was a pair of dregs, a single vandal and the shieldless Captain. Nadaia cackled as she continued to spray the toxic green rounds over them, more as a suppression measure than anything else. The Fallen’s focus shifted to the Hunter as Mako brought up the rear. Though she had proven herself in the Trials of Osiris, there was no challenge the Crucible offered that she had not bested. She had many prizes from her victories and this was one such. As she stepped up behind the last Vandal, it shivered for a brief instant as the cold barrel of Felwinter’s Lie pressed against its spine. The fire of the Iron Banner was the last thing it ever felt. Ejecting the cartridge, the Titan quickly shifted her aim, shredding the dregs with a hail of shot pellets. Now, it was just her and the Captain.

Eliksni―Fallen – are not naturally large. The ether they consume serves as sustenance of a sort. The higher the rank, the more they consume. The more they consume, the larger they become. They become stronger, faster, more dangerous. Captains were the early formations of that power. Bigger, faster, stronger. More than a match for a non-guardian on any day and a threat to anyone without experience. Mako had that experience in spades. So, when she tossed aside her shotgun and punched the palm of her hand, challenging the Captain to physical combat… well, it was ill-advised, but she had the experience to know that.

The Captain reared back and brought its shrapnel launcher to bear. Nadaia responded by shooting straight through the mechanical wrist holding it. The Fallen snarled, found itself still alive, and understood. It kicked the gun aside and charged Mako. It took a wide swing to start and the Titan responded, deflecting the blow, turning and easily throwing the Captain over her shoulder and onto the ground. She let go and took a step back as the Captain leapt to its feet, pacing carefully. It glanced around. The Hunter with her LDR, grenades and throwing knives at her hip. The Warlock with his Hopscotch Pilgrim, traces of the Void swirling around his hands. Nowhere to go. The Titan stretched her neck and lifted her arm. She beckoned the Captain with her fingers, as if to say “Come on.” 

Mathias sighed. Pointless. Reckless. Still, watching Mako work was something else. She was the best shot with a handcannon he knew and could work more guns than most of the Vanguard. Hand-to-hand didn’t really come up with Guardians, though. At best, it was usually a single melee attack to create distance and regroup. It just wasn’t part of the training regimen, since there was very little practical application. 

If boxing was still done, Mako might have had a second home in the ring. She bobbed and weaved like a champ, dodging all four of the Captain’s arms with ease. She kept her feet planted, an immovable object in the face of the Eliksni. Deflecting, dodging, the Captain could gain no ground. Finally, content with her showboating, she delivered a sharp blow to the Captain’s gut. Arc energy pulsed out in every direction and the Fallen dropped to its knees, crumpling into a heap. It gasped, spasmed, unable to stand again. Mako drew her handcannon and, with no ceremony, gave it the kindness of a single bullet to the temple. She was panting. Again, unnecessary, but nominal for Exo. The Titan sounded excited.

“That was unnecessary.” Mathias chided her.

“Yes,” Nadaia added, “but also like, completely radical. That was great, Mako.” The Hunter hopped down and walked over to the dead Captain. “You caved her chest in. One punch. Maybe you should take the Devil Kell cloak, if you’re gonna Saint-14 their bones like that.”

Mako laughed. “It’s uh…” She chuckled a bit more before moving to retrieve her shotgun. She brushed some dirt off of it, “Sorry. It was a whim. Thanks for rolling with it, Naddie.”

“Anytime, Mako.” The Hunter gave the corpse a little kick. “So, what were they looking for? Us? No, right?”

Mathias paced through the bodies and his own burning void crater. “No, definitely not. They were looking for something, but it wasn’t us… Campus 9 is well-worn territory, so I can’t imagine what it’d be.”

“Maybe they stashed something here.” Mako posited. “Or someone else did and they were going to steal it.”

“That’s the Fallen way now.” Nadaia kicked a dreg corpse on top of a vandal and giggled. “No honor among thieves. I say we find it and steal it.”

Mathias huffed. His ghost materialized, wearing a royal blue shell that he had unearthed from a Warlock archive. “Ghost?”

The Ghost nodded and began to flit about, scanning here and there.

Mathias grumbled. “It was my turn, you know.”


	8. Coming Slowly to a Quick Solution

Mathias was a scholar, but he wasn’t what he would call a “Scholar”. The Scholars, though informally known as such, were a group in the Tower that functioned as advisers to the Vanguard and the Consensus. From many walks of life, it was their job to know as much as they could and predict even more. Mathias would probably be counted among them one day, but he felt no particular affection for them. In fact, he didn’t like most of them. All of them thought they knew everything, until they didn’t, and then no one could have possibly known what they didn’t. It was frustrating. One in particular that drew his ire was the Warlock Jocasta. 

Jocasta was a human, allegedly. She wore this helmet unlike anything he’d ever seen, like a fishbowl filled with a nebula taking up all the space her head should occupy. She claimed that it contained some “ideocosm” and “transformed flesh into the stuff of pure thought.” As such, he’d never seen her face. She wandered the halls like that, always professing to know more, to think more, to be more, somehow. She was brilliant, yes, but arrogant. His thoughts turned to her often when he was frustrated. It was a feeling that had become closely tied to Jocasta in their time together. She was his new definition of frustrating.

The search was becoming a pain. They’d been scouring the area for hours. It was going to be night soon. Very unlucky, considering days on Venus are nearly 6000 hours long. The group had made no progress. Whatever the Fallen were looking for in Campus 9, Fireteam Nasca had not yet been able to find it. Mako in particular seemed to be growing irate over this. Though it was unfair to categorize all titans as thoughtless, the Exo was quite used to solving her problems with bullets and lightning. Nadaia had grown increasingly quiet. That was never a good sign. She’d been wandering close to the cliff’s edge over the last ten minutes or so, looking a bit too fascinated with the sea below.

“I think it’s time to stop.” Mathias spoke up, looking between the other two. “We haven’t found it and night’s going to fall soon. We won’t be finding it then.” 

“That’s why we can’t stop, Mathias.” Mako huffed and stood. “But you’re right, we’re not making any progress...”

“Nope.” Nadaia grumbled. “Too curious. Spent too much time on this already. I would rather keep looking until the sun comes back up than quit.” 

Mathias groaned.

Nadaia paced near the cliff face, peeking over the side again. “If we just leave it be, they’ll send a second squad and that squad will attack us. We’ll beat them, of course, but then we’ll think about relocating. THEN the next squad, they’ll get what they’re looking for. So, right now, we find it, we relocate immediately, and we take whatever it is with us.” The Hunter kicked a rock over the edge, staring out at the yellow-red ocean.

“Naddie,” Mako piped in, “I get it, but if we keep at this, we’ll just tire ourselves out. It’ll leave us open to an attack. If you’re that determined to get it, I say we wait for the next squad and wait for them to find it.”

“What, and then let them teleport away with it? Because everybody has access to cool teleportation stuff except us, for some reason!” Nadaia stomped her foot. “No. We do this now or we accept that the Fallen get their prize.”

Silence. Mako walked up beside Mathias, glancing at him without a word. She liked to think that communicated her intentions well, but Mathias never actually understood them. It’s not like he could read her facial expressions. Her face was fully covered. He tapped two fingers against the side of his helmet, trying to think on this for a second, when Nadaia chimed in again.

“Hey. Have either of you ever killed yourself?” She asked.

Silence again, but of an entirely different sort. 

“Nadaia, what?” Mako sounded utterly stunned. Mathias understood the question immediately, though.

“No. I’ve never died just to see what it felt like, if that’s what you’re getting at. We’ve all died enough to know exactly what it feels like.” He crossed his arms. He didn’t like the direction of this conversation.

“Yeah, that’s the gist. But I mean more... well...” Nadaia held out her hand as her Ghost materialized. It seemed to be a standard white shell that had been hand-painted purple, rather than recolored using micromaterial programs, with bits of gold here and there and a faded emblem that looked similar to that of the Reef Queen’s Guard. “Doing something that you know will kill you, for the sake of getting information or achieving a goal?”

“Probably.” Mathias grumbled, tapping his fingers on his arm. “If you give me a bit, I can probably think of something, but-” 

Nadaia didn’t give them a chance to respond. Instead, she waved and hopped off the edge of the cliff. Mako yelled and ran to the edge. Mathias heard his Ghost chime in with a slightly exasperated “Guardian Down” as Nadaia’s Ghost spread its shell, starting the resurrection process. Mako shook her head and held a hand to the purple Ghost, feeding some light in to accelerate the process. Within a moment, Nadaia Wen once again stood before them, materializing in a swirl of light from her Ghost.

“Miss me?” She pat the Titan on her back.

Mako wasn’t pleased. “Do not ever do that again.”

“I’d promise you that, but it totally worked.” Nadaia laughed. “I found our box.”


	9. Trials of Osiris

It’s called the Crucible for a reason.

The first time Mako competed in the Trials of Osiris, she found herself dead within 5 seconds. Shot through the head with an Ice Breaker prototype, her body erupted into flames. She wasn’t alive to feel herself explode. Not that time, anyway.The team lost 5-0, leaving Mako without a single kill to her name. “The Second Coming of Thalor” indeed. 

Death is painful for a Guardian. Mako tells herself, one day, she’ll get used to it. She knows it’s a lie, and she repeats it often. A shotgun blast to the optics. A pair of sniper rounds through her cardiomatrix. A trio of hand cannon bullets to the base of her spinal cabling. Countless flaming bullets from a heavy machine gun riddling every inch of her body with solar pain, cutting her life to shreds by inches in a matter of seconds. The Crucible acclimates you to pain and erodes your fear of death. It’s training. It’s voluntary indoctrination to an undying crusade. It’s often said that the Guardian versus Guardian war games are preparation for the frontier, but for many, it’s the reverse. The endless war against the Darkness and its minions is a method by which one can be refined, sharpened, hardened. Made tough enough to survive lethal heat of Shaxx’s Crucible. 

Mako understood that mentality. It was comforting to think that nothing among the stars was more of a challenge than your fellow Guardians.

It took a year of regular competition in the Trials of Osiris before Mako went to the Lighthouse. It wasn’t so much a matter of improving her skill as it was acclimating to the omnipresence of sniper rifles. When she knew where her opponents were, and how they would approach, the barrier to entry dropped enormously. From then, it was a matter of finding the right team. She trusted Mathias and Nadaia, but they didn’t have the disposition for this sort of combat. Nadaia didn’t take Crucible combat very seriously, as there were no stakes to her. Mathias had the mental disposition, but he didn’t have the supernatural reaction time necessary to keep your head. Instead, her team was a pair of Future War Cult adherents. An Awoken Warlock named Hawk and an Exo Hunter called Gally-33. She considered them friends and comrades. They were ruthless in the Crucible, taking combat to what seemed like a religious extreme. FWC members tended to go a little overboard, which was perfect for Trials. She trusted them in the Crucible like none other, but she’d pick Naddie and Matt over them for the field any day. The pair were an emotional anchor for Mako. Kept her sane in the long stretches of loneliness. The few field ops she’d done with Gally and Hawk had left her just as lonely as if she’d been alone. They were too quiet. Too focused. They couldn’t turn it off like Mako could. She understood that as well. Everyone coped in their own ways.

Her mind was wandering. Trials. To reach the coveted Lighthouse, a team of three needed to win 9 matches and lose none. Your opponents only grew more difficult, as they were sorted by win count. When Mako’s team had netted their 8th win, they were put to compete against another team with 8 wins. It was grueling. The final round came down to Mako and another Titan, decked it out in full Regalia of the Iron Banner. She brought her silvered handcannon to bare, he knocked it aside. He readied a grenade, she broke his wrist. She drew her shotgun, Felwinter's Lie, and he wrested it from her with one hand. He aimed the barrel and Mako drove the stock of it through his helmet, feeling the crunch of his skull. He went down. She readied her aim and turned to her right. Their Warlock had gone down earlier. She was a Sunsinger. She should have pulled herself back from death sooner. She'd have lost to the two of them. Whether it was overconfidence or trying to preserve the Titan's pride, the Warlock had waited. She called herself back like a phoenix, wreathed in flames, and dropped just as quickly with a double-tap in the chest. Mako put another shell in her head. For safety, of course.

Victory hard fought. The team went to the Lighthouse on Mercury. It was beautiful, but she still didn’t know what it was for, exactly. There was a chest waiting for them. For her first trip, she received a scout rifle that shot void bullets. Nice to have for Vex Minotaurs. Her armor had been pieced together from numerous trips to the Lighthouse and she wore it proudly. Something about it had begun to feel hollow of late. Her conversations with Mathias and Nadaia had brought that to the forefront of her mind. That the greatest honor one could achieve was victory against their fellow Guardians…

She needed to do more.

Ignoring the Vex would do no good. She’d spent too much of her time preparing for something that, before now, it seemed as though she never intended to do. 

These thoughts danced through her head as Mako lowered herself down the cliff, rappelling to the location of the Fallen cache Nadaia had found. It was a big cliff, dropping down to a small cove near the ocean. There was a visible dent in the Eliksni crate where Nadaia’s head had collided with it. She chuckled a bit, but her thoughts grew more somber.

If the double fireteam did not return from the Vault of Glass, Mako-7 would volunteer to go down next. 

She didn’t want to say this to Mathias or Nadaia. They’d want to go with her. Well, maybe they wouldn’t want to, but they’d feel compelled to join her. It’d need another team of six, after all. She couldn’t go in alone.

The Titan set down, her boots digging into the silica sands at the edge of the bluish-yellow sea. The Fallen cache sat before her, partially hidden by a small rock ledge. It was kind of impressive that Nadaia managed to collide headfirst with the exposed portion, really. 

“Ghost,” Mako spoke aloud. Her partner materialized beside the Exo, blue eye adjusting as it focused on the Fallen chest. The shell her Ghost resided in was another treasure from the Trials of Osiris, a goldenrod yellow casing with a black sunburst around the eye.

“Hmm.” Her voice was like a child’s, indistinguishably masculine or feminine. She preferred feminine pronouns. “It’s a pretty standard chest. Got a dent in it.”

“I see that.” Mako tapped her fingers along her belt, counting grenades. “Any traps?”

The Ghost focused her eye and emitted a plane of blue light, scanning the chest. “No.” Some digital static crackled amid her voice, signs of internal processing. “Can’t say I recognize what’s in it, though.” 

“Not Fallen. They’d have no reason to hide it from themselves.” Mako positied.

“It scans like Vex, but I’m reading some Ishtar Collective study markers on it. None that correspond to any known database, but the formatting is correct.” The Ghost floated closer as Mako popped the chest open. Inside was an oblong metallic casing, a some gold-hued brass with white markings. Mako’s Ghost scanned again. “Looks like Hezen Protective markings. Hm. There’s trace residue of oil, likely from contact with human skin.”

The Ghost floated closer, narrowing her gaze. Mako pulled out two lightning grenades and a flashbang. 

“Fascinating.” The Ghost floated back and forth like an excited child. “Despite its age, the oily residue seems to have left a slight discoloration from where it was held, centuries back. I might be able to pull recognizable fingerprints from it…”

Mako shrugged. “That’s interesting, but I can’t imagine it being useful. Whoever those fingerprints belonged to, they’re long dead now.”

“Spoken like a true Titan. Useless information does not exist. There is only information for which you have not yet discovered a use, Mako.” She flitted about. “Done. I’ve recorded as accurate a scan as I can.”

“Can you transmat it back to the ship?” Mako looked up. She didn’t want to carry it.

“No. Vex technology doesn’t play well with transmats. Shouldn’t risk it.”

Mako sighed. She’d have to carry it back up. She pulled it out of the box and began rigging the interior with her grenades. “Pull a couple of magnetic grenades off the ship for me, then. I want to leave a surprise for the Fallen when they come back for this.”

The Ghost let out an artificial sigh “So unnecessary.” She then materialized a trio of magnetic grenades. “You won’t even be around to see them detonate.”

“Yeah.” Mako agreed, priming the grenades. “I might hear it, though. That’s almost as good.”


	10. Detour - F#

F#, followed closely by the discordant beat of two auto rifles, their staccato rhythms out of sync with one another. Bb, met with with a dual heartbeat, a pair of shotguns double-tapping the golden chime. The pulse came again. Another wave. More Vex.

Canan couldn't stop to think. It felt like they'd been doing this for hours. Days? How long had it been? His arms burned. He ejected the empty clip from his Shadow Price as his ghost synthesised more heavy munitions for his rocket launcher. He reloaded, sprinting for cover as the fanatics descended upon them again. 

Canan was a Titan, leading his unit of 3. He was covering the left with Jacob and Marlowe-55. Jacob was a Hunter. He died hours ago, and had not yet returned. His ghost floated in still air, unable to resurrect him. Neither Canan nor Marlowe had been able to help. Feeding Light to the ghost did nothing. Jacob was down. He and Marlowe were close. Canan had never seen them apart and the Exo clearly wasn’t taking it well. Marlowe was a professional. He’d held together, but the grueling length of the encounter was draining him. Canan couldn’t see his face through the Warlock’s helmet, but his body language said everything. Marlowe kept looking at Jacob’s ghost. The ghost kept floating, struggling to keep some spark of Jacob’s existence alight. Guardians push their limits, but you can only push so far before you come across a cliff. Marlowe was on the edge.

It was Canan’s job to bring him back.

“Mars.” He slapped the Exo’s back. “We’re almost through this. His ghost is still up. He’s not gone yet.” Was that a lie? That remained to be seen. A Titan’s job description reads “great expectations, better results.” At least, it would, if they had let Canan write it. 

Marlowe’s head tilted toward the Titan. He gave a silent nod before slamming a new clip into his sniper rifle. “I told you not to call me Mars.” 

“You and Jacob can kick my ass for it later.” Canan smirked beneath his helmet.

“It’s a date.” Marlowe tossed a grenade over their cover, causing a small sun to erupt in the center of a cluster of the headless Vex fanatics. The Hunter from the right side, Bastet-88, had figured out the best strategy for the exploders. If you let them be, they’d just tire out and destruct on their own. It gave them a moment to rest and gave Canan time to think.

Six Guardians opened the Vault. Four remained. He and Marlowe, and two covering the right. He wasn't sure which two. He could see the light of a ghost, struggling to revive its fallen partner, but didn't know which had died. It might have been Bastet. She was calling out a lot near the start, but he hadn’t heard her voice in a while. Maybe she had called out and he simply hadn’t heard. He was preoccupied with the sisyphean task before him, the endless chiming of the Oracles. 

There were seven Oracles. There were also a seemingly infinite number of Oracles. They just happened to appear in 7 locations, each with a unique tone. C, D, E, F#, G, A, Bb. The pattern changed, but there assuredly was one. Canan wondered what it meant. The Vex had an organic core, but they were machines through and through. The thought of them creating music was inconceivable, though now that Canan had conceived the thought, it became deeply unsettlingly. The Vex had no grasp of beauty and art, or if they did, they had no interest in it. In their collective consciousness, there is consensus. There is no deviation or interpretation, there is only the pattern. Music, then, should be a foreign concept. It’s not language. It holds meaning, but not objective meaning. It evokes sensations, moods, feelings. By his understanding of the Vex, music should have no place.

Titans are often thought of as stupid and bullheaded. While not an incorrect assessment of many, it paints too broad a brush. Titans are pragmatic. By Canan’s understanding of the Vex, such a thing was impossible. Simply put, this meant his understanding was incorrect. If not incorrect, then at least incomplete. Music has no inherent meaning for those who had their origins on Earth. Awoken and Exo, though different from humans, share a common home. There are ideological differences, but they all split off from a common root understanding of the world. 

The Vex are alien in the truest sense. He knew this. The Fallen, the Cabal-- even the Hive to an extent-- all of them could be understood from a human-centric point of reference. The Vex, as he learned repeatedly, could not. Maybe this was not music to the Vex, merely another form of relaying information. Perhaps they predicted the future. They were Oracles, after all.

Canan glanced over the edge of his cover, peeking toward the center of their battleground. The beast hovered in air, immobile and indestructible. The Oracles were grueling, but there was a pattern to them. He had managed to divine meaning from their pattern. Their song still rung in his head. C-G-A-E-D, D-Bb-A-F#-G-E-C. He parsed it out amid the gunfire. Every round had grown longer, but only when every Oracle had been destroyed. If even one remained, something was done to them. It felt like a poison on his very existence, as though any moment it could eat him away, leaving nothing behind. There was a pool of light in the center, an altar before the great beast, the giant Vex hydra. The Templar. The light cleansed them of the poison. He had no idea what would have happened if they didn’t. Something worse than death, he feared.

The Light is what gave him hope. It was surely that of a fallen Guardian, brilliant, purging away what blight the Vex could bestow upon them. That Guardian’s sacrifice might be enough to pull them through. 

The Fanatics began to fail. It was time again.

Bb. The steady beat of a pulse rifle, accompanied by a quintet of hand cannon shots.   
G. Heavy machine gun fire, followed by a rocket.  
E. Dual shotguns once more.  
A. Marlowe and Canan hurled grenades at the oracle tucked away in the back left. The Hobgoblin snipers began to fire.  
D. Canan readied his rocket launcher, firing twice. The rockets detonate early as they close in.  
F#. Marlowe notices the oracle tucked away in the back didn’t go down. He sprints.  
E. Canan hears shotguns once more. He charges his fusion and pours into the F# Oracle. It goes down.   
G. So does Marlowe. The Warlock Sunsinger pulls himself back, but is quickly overwhelmed. He goes down again. Canan’s ghost reports three deaths. Two for Marlowe, one for a member of the other team. Two remain.   
C. “Guardian down.” Canan is alone. He sprints to the center. He fires rockets on the way. It doesn’t bring the oracle down. He empties his Shadow Price into it, it stays up. Canan screams, driving his fist into the translucent golden cube.

The room went silent as the Oracle bursts. Canan dropped to his knees. In one moment, he is alone. In the next, 5 fellow Guardians are standing beside him. He laughs, but he can’t even hear himself do it. Marlowe embraces Jacob and cries. Bastet punches the Guardian with the yellow pulse rifle in hand. “The Black Garden was fine for you, but this is too much?” she asked, joking.

Canan stared off, down at the altar before the Templar. Where once was a pool of light, now sits a relic.“Take a breather everyone,” he sighed. “We’re not done yet.”


	11. Assembled from Broken Myths

“Hm.” Nadaia tossed the Vex object into the air a couple times, giving it some spin. Mathias, in turn, gripped his knees with white knuckles, twitching.

“Please stop that,” the Warlock implored, a visible twitch beneath his armor. “It’s Vex. If it falls wrong, it could do anything. Explode, send us into the future, pull objects from the past…”

“Matty, if you’re telling me this thing might summon dinosaurs, I am going to start playing football with it.” The Hunter hurled it into the air, seemingly ready to bounce it on her knee. Mathias gasped, just before Nadaia quickly darted her hand in front of her leg, catching it. She laughed. He didn’t.

“Naddie.” Mako sighed. “The levity is appreciated, but you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

For a full ten seconds, Nadaia workshopped jokes in her head to play with an Exo having a ‘heart attack,’ but thought better of it. “Okay.” She took a seat, placing the oblong shape between the three of them. “So, what is it?”

Mako shook her head. “Ghost didn’t bring up anything. Might have been in the Ishtar Collective Archives going by some ID number, but nothing in our databases. Has been held by human hands, at some point. Oil or something.”

Mathias extended a hand, a royal blue shell emerging as his Ghost materialized above his palm. “We’ve got a more extensive database on retainer. Ghost?”

The Ghost floating above his palm narrowed its eye and spoke in a friendly, masculine voice. “You know, there’s three of us here. Isn’t it confusing for you to just call each of us ‘ghost’?”

Mathias tilted his head. “Um. Hm. You knew I meant you, so I don’t think, but....” He tapped the temple of his helmet. “Recommendation?”

“Blue, Yellow, Purple.” It said, simply. 

Nadaia and Mako’s ghosts both materialized. Mako’s had a brilliant golden yellow shell with a black starburst around its eye, a treasure from the Trials of Osiris, like most things on the Titan’s person. Nadaia’s ghost was a stock-standard white shell that she had hand-painted a metallic purple. The Ghosts shifted and looked at each other.

“No complaints,” nodded Yellow, in a child-like voice.

“Can we go with, like, Lavender? Lav sounds cool.” Nadaia gently prodded her Ghost.

“I like Lav.” Nadaia chuckled. “You’re definitely not lavender, though.”

“Don’t care. My name is Lav. I’ll fight you.” Lav playfully bumped into Nadaia’s helmet, eliciting a laugh form the hunter, before it began scanning the piece of Vex technology. 

Blue waited patiently while Yellow began floating around the room, scouting the perimeter and establishing a link with Mako’s ship.

“Are you done?” Blue asked, floating beside Lav.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I was just scanning to see if it was loaded.” Lav backed off. “And if it had any music on it.”

Blue shut its eye and verbalized a sigh “We don’t even know if it’s a gun. It could be a portal. It could be a data core.”

“Which could have golden age tunes on it. The Vex might not care for music, but if it was data on studying humans-” Lav was cut off as Blue began its scan. 

“Definite presence of chronal technology consistent with known Vex gate networks. Aesthetic and Molecular similarities to Hezen Protective frames. Internal mechanisms to deploy object to an ‘active’ state. Removable cartridge that seems to be some sort of power source, seemingly for deploying localized discharges of specialized energy. Can replicate using standard munition synthesis modules.” Blue paused, narrowing his eye.

Nadaia tilted her head. “So it’s a gun. You are describing a gun.”

Mathias sighed. “You can’t simplify a description like that to ‘a gun.’ That’s like calling an FTL drive ‘a rocket’ or something.”

“I mean, I would do that. They’re just really good rockets, right?” Nadaia tried her best to deadpan, but Mathias saw through the bait. Mako chuckled, though.

“If I’m understanding correctly, it’s something that can probably be used as a gun.” Mako looked to Blue for confirmation.

“Anything can be used as a gun if you’re determined enough.” Blue’s singular optic narrowed. “I think it’s more like a portal or a miniature gateway, but it seems to be a portal or miniature gateway ready and able to function as a gun.”

“You’re using a lot of words to say ‘yes,’ Blue.” Mako glanced over at her own ghost.

The back end of Blue’s shell spun as it narrowed its eye in frustration. “So very like a Titan. Not everything can be boiled down to yes or no. It’s not that simple!”

Mako shrugged. “If something opened fire on me, would it be reasonable to pick that up and start shooting back?”

Blue verbalized a grumbling acquiescence.

“That sounds like a yes.” Mako chuckled, glancing over at Yellow again. “... what’s wrong?”

Mathias and Nadaia instantly snapped to attention, gazing at Mako’s ghost intently.

“Huh?” Yellow shook and faced the group. “Nothing’s wrong. Just an odd signal. Some noise, I think. Help me filter this.”

Blue and Lav both floated beside Yellow, the three ghosts forming an equilateral triangle in the air in silence.

“Hey,” Nadaia leaned over, glancing at Mathias. “This is weird, right? I should be worried about this?”

“Not necessarily.” Mathias shrugged. “Sometimes noise is just noise, but sufficiently advanced encoding can make signals seem like random noise. Can’t crack a code if you don’t know there is one.”

“I mean, I can’t crack a code anyway.” Nadaia paused. “I can crack a smile, though.” The Hunter pointed to her helmet with both index fingers.

Mathias stared. Mako shook her head.

“...The joke is that I’m wearing a-”

“Naddie.” Mako sighed.

Nadaia huffed.

The three ghosts beeped and whistled in discordant unison. Their shells spun and their singular eyes darted back and forth at each other, looking for confirmation. 

The three guardians exchanged glances.

“Blue?” Mathias inquired.

“We’re processing, but the signal is…” The blue ghost paused, whirring, picking its words carefully. “It’s Vanguard. We can’t pinpoint a source, but…”

“We think it’s coming from the Vault!” Lav chirped, happily.

The Guardians readied their guns without a word.


End file.
